Tales of the Sheikah
by JynxyChan
Summary: Hyrule has fallen to Ganondorf, and Zelda has trusted Time in Link's hands. Now, in the time when Hyrule needs not a princess, but a hero, she sheds Zelda for Sheik, and faces the trials a dying kingdom has when under the rule of a vicious tyrant. This is her story. These are the tales of the Sheikah.
1. Prologue: Lost

_**Hopefully, this will be my only AN for this story. So I'll try to be brief, so you can begin reading. **_

_**This story is set in the Ocarina of Time, with the main characters being those from the game. It is in the perspective of Zelda, in the time when Link is inside the Temple of Time.**_

_**I advise you become familliar with the plot of the game, if you are not already, as I don't intend to spend much time introoducing the characters or settings. This is for people who are truly fans of the game, so please, understand if there is something you don't understand in the story, I'm dong it with the preset that my audience is familliar with the story. Not to discourage anyone from reading, please, I hope ANYONE can enjoy this. Its just it may be a lot harder to understand at first if you do not know the game.**_

_**So, no, I don't own the game, the characters, or the game's plot. This is the story of Zelda's coming of age.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

"Link!" I screamed as the white horse painted and raced towards the boy in his outlandish green tunic. I was terror-stricken, praying that Jasmine wouldn't crush him with her hooves. In the last instant, he dove out of the way, Navi zipping close behind. Relief washed through me, quickly replaced with inspiration. I didn't think. My body acted almost on its own as my hand fumbled through my dress, until I found the cool, smooth surface of the Ocarina. I didn't have time to reminisce in it. Time was gone. But... maybe, in Link's hands, Time had hope.

I twisted in Impa's arms, desperately flinging the ovarian towards the only boy in all of Hyrule to whom I could trust. In the short span the ovarian spent twisting in the air, everything seemed clear. The sparkling blue ovarian reflecting the light of the moon. The sweat of Jasmine as she continued to charge, muscles rippling underneath. Link's wide, Julian eyes, the same color as the beloved Ocarina.

And there, in the distance, the black cloud storming closer. The dark rider leaned forward in his saddle, spurring his stallion on. I shuddered, true horror rippling through me.

Ganondorf.

Before my fear rendered me limp, leaving me easy prey for the forces of gravity to tear me out of the saddle, Impa's powerful hand grasped my collar and shifted me o I wasn't leaning at a dangerous angle over the saddle.

"We can't lose you, Zelda. Hold on."

Wordless, I could only obey. Everything... had fallen apart. All our meticulous planning... all our efforts... all for naught.

Jasmine thundered on through the night, and into the next day. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, there was still the constant echo in my mind.

Time is lost.


	2. Chapter 1: The Death of Zelda

We traveled for days. Impa did not allow for rest, driving poor Jasmine far beyond the point of exhaustion. We went on winding paths across Hyrule, trying to leave no trace of our passage. Impa had become very stern, very commanding, and I knew that my life depended on my obedience.

After much exhausting zig zagging across the plains of Hyrule, I had come to see just how deadly powerful my Sheikah guardian was. I had always known she was strong, but never had I seen her skills in action. The first I saw was the second day of travel. Jasmine needed a break, I was thirsty, and Impa needed to retighten the saddle. So, she had Jasmine slow down to a trot along the bank of a stream, slowing her to a stop when we reached a cluster of trees. Impa tossed a leg over the saddle and stepped down effortlessly, then turned to grab me. I was hoisted down, and after a quick scan of the horizon to check for any who might be trailing us, I was allowed to step away and take a break.

Jasmine began lapping at the stream, beads of sweat trickling down her body, and Impa began filling our water skeins. I was exhausted from the riding, and took shelter at the foot of one of the trees, my eyes drooping shut.

I didn't get to rest long.

Jasmine whinnied loudly, and I heard the stamping of hooves. I snapped out of my daydream, looking about frantically for what could be the source of danger. They were sprung open just in time to see a large skulltulla diving for me, pincers snapping excitedly.

I was frozen in place, a shrill scream escaping my throat. Just as the creature was within inches of my head, gruesome delight shining from within the void of its black, soulless gaze, a blue-clad hand shot forward, punching through its soft underbelly.

Impa had a ferocious visage of determination and wrath. Another hand followed the first, this time cracking through the skulltulla's shell. The monster writhed in agony, pincers and legs twitching rapidly.

The back legs began pulling at the web, frantically trying to escape, but Impa would not allow it.

The fist that punched a crack in the shell reared back, bits of its flesh ripping out, clinging to her hand. The skulltulla screamed, a horrible, pain-filled shriek like the sound of nails raking down a sheet of glass. Again, her hand pumped into its body, this time fingers and knuckles breaking through.

I clasped my hands over my ears as the screams of the skulltulla reached higher and higher pitches. Jasmine reared and ran off in a panic, her eyes rolling in her head. With a grunt, Impa curled her fingers around the shell and tore the skulltulla from the tree. She tossed it to the ground, belly-side up, and dropped down on it. Her knees landed on its joints with a sickening crunch, causing the legs to curl up in the air around her.

Then, she went into a frenzy.

Punch after punch, she pummeled the skulltulla's backside. Her fists sent bits of flesh and blood in all directions, spraying over the grass, the trees, even on me. Impa didn't care.

Long after the creature had stopped moving, she still drove her fists into it. She was relentless. Sweat mixed with the black blood speckled all over her face, dripping down in murky rivulets. She was grunting, pounding away at the skulltulla in a blind rage until it was unrecognizable. Only when the shell lay in shattered pieces, and the body splayed out in torn bits of flesh did she stop.

She kneeled there, gasping in shallow breaths, her knuckles bruised and covered in the black blood. I took her in with wide, shocked eyes. This was a side of Impa that I had never seen. My guardian… was terrifying.

We sat there, eyes locked on each others, in silence for quite a bit of time. Eventually, her breaths evened out, and the sheen on her body was beginning to evaporate, leaving the black blood crusted over her, like some macabre paint. Eventually, she sighed and got up, walking over to me.

Her hand reached down, offering to help me up. I held out my own, trembling hand, my eyes still wide. She lifted me in the air and pulled me to her chest, her face buried in my hair.

Suddenly she was sobbing. I was sobbing. Both of us were standing there, over the corpse of the thing that had tried to kill me, supporting each other.

This was never supposed to happen. We should never have been in this predicament. I should never have been so close to death.

After a long time spent holding each other, like mother to daughter, Impa sighed and slowly let me go. Her sharp eyes were on mine, regarding me intensely.

"You have to change. No matter how far or fast we travel, if you look the part of the princess, word will spread, and Ganondorf will find us. He will find YOU," she emphasized, sighing and closing her eyes in thought.

"This… Is too easy to recognize," she continued, her hand waving towards my blood-splattered dress. With a sigh, she knelt down and grabbed the water skeins, then began trotting east.

"Hurry along," she called out, beckoning I follow, "We can't travel on foot with you like that, we need to find Jasmine, then we can head to Kakariko village."

My limbs twitched, and I began following her, mind still in a daze. "Why Kakariko vilage?" I asked, fighting to keep up with the athletic woman. My lungs were heaving already, though she was able to keep an even breath, despite all the energyshe had just used to save me.

Clear eyes glinted from over her shoulder as she answered me.

"Say goodbye to Zelda, princess of Hyrule. Tomorrow, you will be Sheik, my son, the farm boy."


End file.
